Eating
is controlled by many factors, including appetite, food availability, family,
peer, and cultural practices, and attempts at voluntary control. Dieting to a
body weight leaner than needed for health is highly promoted by current fashion
trends, sales campaigns for special foods, and in some activities and
professions. Eating disorders involve serious disturbances in eating
behavior, such as extreme and unhealthy reduction of food intake or severe
overeating, as well as feelings of distress or extreme concern about body shape
or weight. Researchers are investigating how and why initially voluntary
behaviors, such as eating smaller or larger amounts of food than usual, at some
point move beyond control in some people and develop into an eating disorder.
Studies on the basic biology of appetite control and its alteration by
prolonged overeating or starvation have uncovered enormous complexity, but in
the long run have the potential to lead to new pharmacological treatments for
eating disorders.
Eating disorders are not due to a failure of will or
behavior; rather, they are real, treatable medical illnesses in which certain
maladaptive patterns of eating take on a life of their own. The main types of
eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. A third type,
binge-eating disorder, has been suggested but has not yet been approved as a
formal psychiatric diagnosis. Eating disorders frequently develop during
adolescence or early adulthood, but some reports indicate their onset can occur
during childhood or later in adulthood.
Eating disorders frequently co-occur with other psychiatric disorders such
as
depression,
substance abuse, and
anxiety
disorders. In addition, people who suffer from eating disorders can
experience a wide range of physical health complications, including serious
heart conditions and kidney failure which may lead to death. Recognition of
eating disorders as real and treatable diseases, therefore, is critically
important.
Females are much more likely than males to develop an eating disorder. Only
an estimated 5 to 15 percent of people with anorexia or bulimia and an
estimated 35 percent of those with binge-eating disorder are male.
Eating Disorders
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